Ghana has begun in earnest its Census of Agriculture (CA) Project aimed at strengthening the national agricultural statistics system.
The four-phase project expected to be completed in December 2018, is estimated at US$19,057,305, and would seek to improve the timely production and availability of reliable data, to support growth and development of the sector in a sustainable way. .
The project is currently at the preparatory phase which commenced in January 2014 and is expected to be completed in December 2015.
The other phases of the project include; Core and Community Modules (July 2015 to June 2016); Supplementary and Thematic Modules (July 2016 to June 2017); and Finalization of technical reports for all modules (August 2017 to December 2018).
Minister for Food and Agriculture, Fifi Kwetey, who disclosed this in Parliament Wednesday, said funding has been a major challenge in executing the project.
He said so far only US$372,000 has been secured from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) for the completion of the first phase of the project with phase II of the project yet to receive the full project sum from Ministry of Finance.
“Going by the planned activities, the main data collection for the Core and Community Modules (Phase II) was expected to start in October 2014. However, only GH₵5million out of the approximately GH₵22million required to implement this phase of the project has been released, to date. This thus, leaves a funding gap of GH₵16,980,429 for the implementation of the Core and Community Modules of the CA”.
“The Ghana Statistical Service has written to the Ministry of Finance requesting for the release of the outstanding balance. The Ministry of Finance is yet to respond to the request”, the Agric Minister explained.
His comments were in response to a question asked by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Nsuta-Kwamang Beposo, Kwame Asafu-Adjei. The MP had sought to inquire from the Food and Agriculture Minister the status of Census of Agriculture.
A census of agriculture is a statistical operation for collecting, processing and disseminating data on the structure of agriculture covering the whole or a significant part of the country. Typical structural data collected in a census of agriculture are size of holding, land tenure, land use, crop area harvested, irrigation, livestock numbers, labour and other agricultural inputs. A census of agricultural normally involves collecting key structural data by complete enumeration of all agricultural holdings, in combination with more detailed structural data using sampling methods.
The FAO is the lead organization that promotes the conduct of Census of Agriculture world-wide. Since its inception in 1945, Censuses of Agriculture have been conducted once in every ten years. In 2010, the FAO outlined the need for every country to conduct its Census of Agriculture which covers the period 2006 to 2015.
Mr. Kwetey commenting further, said Ghana through his outfit and the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) in keeping with global requirements applied to the FAO for a Technical Cooperation Program Facility for the Ghana Census of Agriculture in May 2011.
Following this, he said a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed in December, 2013 between the FAO and the GSS on behalf of the country for the implementation of activities of the Preparatory Phase of the CA with funding support from the FAO.
By: Stephen Odoi-Larbi/Kasapafmonline.com/Ghana
